


Conversation

by Kazekaitou



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M, Female Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Patch 5.3: Reflections in Crystal Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:41:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28124040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kazekaitou/pseuds/Kazekaitou
Summary: Female WOL/ G'raha Tia goodness, short one shot. G'raha Tia interrupts the WOL while she's thinking on the outskirts of town.
Relationships: G'raha Tia | Crystal Exarch/Warrior of Light
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	Conversation

She’d been sitting outside, the dusk of Mor Dohna pinks, purples with night sky descending, the Crystal tower’s glow in the distance. She loved it here, a high point before the elevation dropped into the lake, where she could be alone. 

It was a mishmash, Mor Dohna, and the more she thought about it, the more confusing it became. History of war, relics unexplained littering the ground, A Crystal Tower that could traverse time, scars of a calamity past. And here she was, whatever she was, Warrior of Light, Warrior or Darkness, epithets kept coming and she’d lost track somewhere. That had been reliable. Names and Duty, for a time. Until it wasn’t.

She was scared of what else she might add to that list.

She came here to breathe. Cool, crisp air, sounds of nature but none quite close enough to cause her alarm, not that these creatures frightened her anymore. But she was tired of raising her staff and tired of fighting. 

“Hey.” She turned, he’d appeared behind her, sort of awkwardly swaying and she chided herself for not paying attention.

“G’raha.” Hadn’t they had a moment like this, when she had sought out him, a world ago, minutes ago, a lifetime ago?

This man was him and not him, and vacillated between the two within a moment’s notice, memories and present the same but so different.

His red tail twitches as he tried to explain himself “The other’s…”

“Lost the bet to check on me?” She asked.

“Urianger won, thought I’d be your hero, Silver” He quipped back, before taking a bow that would impress the Ishgardians.

She laughed, running her hand through her short purple hair before patting the ground beside her, “I appreciate your concern, I’ve heard enough from him today. Don’t get me wrong--”

“He’s long-winded. It's…” He paused, she could see the Exarch there, thinking of a diplomatic answer and the reckless man he was now who wanted to say something else.

She waited him out in silence.

“The verbosity doth serve its purpose.” 

She snorted, more so at the stern look that just didn’t belong on his face, the one Urigener always wore. 

He was surprised at her reaction, he was more readable most of the tombs he carried, how his eyes widened and his tail moved, the way he watched her.

She turned away, looking at the horizon, ignoring that for the moment. She didn’t know what to do with whatever it was when she felt comfortable.

He plopped next to her, he sort of swayed, but it fell Silent, again. As much as he talked he could hold his own in silence, and she appreciated that. 

“What are you thinking?”

Silver shrugged, it was too many thoughts. “I just needed a break.”

His tail stiffened and he put his head down and looked utterly dejected but before he could speak she shook her head “No, no, you can stay, but I… sometimes… I just don’t want to think or act anymore. I just want to sit and feel the wind.”

“Is it calming?” He asked, interested, watching her face intently and she could feel it.

“I don’t know if this part of Mor Dohna could be considered calming, not in the way Azim Steppe would be, not in the way of the Forests of Rak’tika. It’s more…” She trailed off, her privacy feeling paramount, as saying ‘reflection’ felt too revealing, too honest, maybe even too vulnerable.

“What is it?”

“I--I” she tried to smooth it over, “Its home.”

“Is it? Where do you hail from?” It was more language of the first than of the thirteenth and she smirked at him just slightly.

She shrugged “I was born on the outskirts of Gridania.”She shrugged. “Just a Miqo’te without a tribe I guess. Boring. Lackluster. A runt of a kit.”

“Still a bit of one, if you ask me”

She glared, looking up at him. “I make up with it with a really powerful stick.” She placed her hand on her staff for emphasis.

He laughed aloud. “Of course you do. You’re more of a big lalafell than a small--”

She punched him in the side “Hey---”

“I tower over Tataru and you know it.” She defended.

“Yeah?” He questioned standing up, egging her on, and she lept up next to him, he a whole head bigger than her and she looked up at him and that wicked grin, ears wiggling just so and she caught herself staring into his eyes, acutely aware of how close they were.

He blushed as red as the fur on his ears, “Um, I...” 

“I should go back to contemplating calamities.” She muttered, turning away, looking into the sky turning dark, but not moving, still right next to him.

He furrowed his brow, watching her as her tail twitched nervously, “Do...do you want company?”

“I do not,  _ not _ want company.” She frowned. “I’m used… I’m used to ending up on my own.”

“It’s not worth it to be alone.”He touched a firm hand to her shoulder, she could feel the warmth through her thaumaturge robes, “Trust me. I know.”

She knew he did know. Thrown into a future for centuries. Lost. Desperate to reconnect, to heal what he had lost. She did not push his touch away, instead of leaning into it, his shoulder, his arms wrapping around her. Strength. A leader. An Exarch with purpose and a plan. 

She didn’t feel like any of those things, and wish she could siphon off that purpose into the core of her aether sometimes when she just nodded and went forth because  _ who else could _ ? 

He knew who he was. A royal heir marked with the red eyes, to study the past and how it might connect with the future. He didn’t seem to question it.

She was some girl who had been short on gil and then did one too many nice things, and it became clear she had a gift of the Echo. Then it led back to this place. 

“I...the more I fall into this mess, the less I’m sure of who I am... _ ”  _ It was a disclosure more towards the now night sky, the chill leading to clouds of breath in front of her face. It wasn’t something she wanted to face head-on, those hints, the things coming together about who she was. What her purpose was.

“Sometimes...when I doubt...I ask myself ‘what do I want?’” She was looking at him again. He touched her chin so she couldn’t avert his gaze, “So, Silver, what do you want?”

Her breath caught in her throat, with the way he noticed her. Watched her. 

“I want something that's...my own?” She whispered, “That I decided.” She nodded firmly.

“Any decisions to make?”

She blushed, then. Stepping away, looking down, her tail curling against her leg, and she kicked her feet for a moment. 

G’raha Tia looked utterly confused by the change in her demeanor. “Did I---?”

She shook her head wildly, sort of panicked, so out of behavior for the esteemed warrior of light, and G’raha Tia laughed, and it was deep and musical and she wanted more of it. She shut her eyes tight, oh gods, what was she even doing? She wished a primal would come up and eat her alive in this particular moment, caught in raw feelings and the truth that she was a fucking coward...as afraid to gain as she was to lose. 

“What-- what just happened?” He’d lost the playfulness again, serious. Watching her. “Was I….was I to forward?”

She shook her head again, words seeming to fail her for another moment. “G’raha...I need to ask you something, and its kind of complicated.”

“I have been asked complicated questions before.” 

She rolled her eyes, and “Can I trust you with something that requires...discretion?”

“I can keep a secret.”

“Here.” She pointed to his head, reaching up and touching his temple, “But it's harder here.” She pointed to his chest, a single finger against his shirt. “You’re readable from yalms away G’raha.”

“And?”

“And...if I like you, would you be able to keep it from the others? I don’t--I don’t want things to get more complicated than they are.”

“Like me?” His eyes were wide, and she was so close.

“Yeah. Like this.” She reached up on her tiptoes to kiss him, her hands rising to at the back of his and he after a moment of surprise, leaned in, kissing her deeply, hands caressing her face, fingertips brushing the edges of her ears. She felt him against her, steady strong, his smell of worn leather and parchment and something distinctly him before she broke it, pulling away, looking at him still clearly in shock and his skin definitely the color of his fur again. 

“A secret.” She stated again emphatically. This was complicated. Everything was complicated. She began to turn away in his stunned silence, unsure of what he felt.

“Stay.” It was a command, and she stood looking at him. He quickly followed up with “I...I can. For you.”

It was foolish to trust him, because part of her knew that others would just  _ know _ , but it was enough for her, and she sighed. “I don’t...I don’t know what...I can’t predict tomorrow. But I know right now...next to you...I’m somewhere I want to be.”

“I believe that is the greatest compliment ever bestowed upon me.” He whispered, their lips gracing each other, her nose and cheek sliding against his, taking his scent, marking him, breathing into him, and her world faded out of view.

The echo did come at inopportune times. 

It took her a movement to realize he was seeing herself through G’raha, replaying their meeting just now, up to even moments before, her startled look her looking up at him so determined and so hesitant, but that isn’t what caught her attention. It was the feelings, raw, strong. The way he felt with such intensity, the focus she felt when fighting a primal, but towards  _ her. _ Protective, caring, the way when she touched his chest his heart raced looking at down at her determined eyes and purple hair, the enamouredness of it all. She sputtered, the world shifting back to her own point of view startled, the moment enough that he was holding her, on her knees, looking intently at her, so so nervous. She didn’t need the echo to know that.

“What...what did you see?” He asked and she felt so utterly guilty, invading his thoughts, stumbling upon this intimacy, and it comforted her, confounded her and exhilarated her.

“Just…” She took a deep breath. He  _ loved _ her.

“Is there something amiss? Do we need to go back to town?”

“No...no no...nothing like that. I just seemed to have inadvertently spied…”

“You saw something of mine?” He was perplexed…”Does...does touch increase the power of the echo?” His hand trailed his lips for a moment, and she did notice.

She shrugged. It’s not like she kissed people very often or even had the chance. But it was a discussion that wasn’t what she just felt. The way she needed to consider her own feelings. “I don’t know. Minafillia never mentioned...I’d think she would have known if it did.” She looked at them in his awkward position and settled back onto the ground. “Suddenly collapsing seems to be a flaw of mine, I apologize.”

“I once heard the great Warrior of light collapsed in the midst of a heated battle, only to be saved by a wayward Dragoon, of all people.”

“And that was your fault.” She pointed at him, glaring with the might of the mage she was. “You tried to yank me from this world and it didn’t work quite as expected. ”

“My sincerest apologies.” It was true, he was apologizing.

“You --” It was sheer puzzlement at this man. He waited for a moment, and when she didn't say anything else, returned to the subject

“Did the echo help?”

“No! It made it worse. You are complicated G’raha. I’m…” She looked into his eyes, and she felt tears in her own “I’m...I’m not what you see. I can’t--”

“If you…” He swallowed, maybe trying to understand exactly what just happened “If you felt my feelings of you-- then you know their conviction.” He did not hide those red eyes that conveyed belief and honesty as they always did.

“But if you felt mine…” She paused, looking down, fiddling with her robe for a moment. “They’re waiting for the thing that will take us from this world. Or you from this world. Or...how am I suppose to even know. I wouldn’t have been able to imagine anything---”

“Silver…” His voice was gentle, soft, calming. “I understand this,” he pointed between the two of them “is just for right now, today for you. I understand that. That people rise and turn to dust. That we will turn to dust, maybe at very different times. And...I don’t care. I will take my chances, for I truly believe it is better to grieve what you had than to never have known. I want to know you, Silver.”

“I…I want to know you too.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> This is my first FFXIV fic, so comments/Kudos are really appreciated! I can't get this little catboi out of my head. I recently joined the [Enabling-Debauched-xivfic](https://discord.gg/enabling-debauched-xivfic) Which seems like a pretty awesome discord if you're interested in joining.


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